The rolling of the bar-shaped material, e.g. round, flat or square steel, requires the segregation of the head pieces which are not true to gauge. Also, it is necessary to take samples, occasionally, from the running rolled material. As much time and effort is required when taking samples and/or head pieces from material which has already been processed into coils, for example, it is already known to separate head pieces and/or samples from the moving rolled material during the production process with cutters specially constructed for this purpose. The separated pieces of material are segregated from the moving production course by means of deflecting devices, such as switches or similar devices into long switch channel sidings where they slowly come to a halt due to friction. Such channels or flutes, however, are very long and, aside from the enormous demand for space, are very expensive.
The object of the present invention is to provide a means for deceleration of the above type, which achieves rapid deceleration of the severed pieces moving at high speeds with minimum space requirements.